Global Soil Microbial Carbon and Nitrogen Use Efficiencies Under Nitrogen Enrichment

Isotope-based measurements from published studies quantify microbial metabolic responses to nitrogen addition across global terrestrial ecosystems. The dataset, compiled by Lei Zhang and shared on figshare in 2026, includes metrics for microbial carbon growth, respiration, nitrogen mineralization, and use efficiencies. It evaluates how ecosystem type, nitrogen addition rate, experimental duration, and soil properties regulate these context-dependent responses.

Use Cases

• Modeling soil carbon storage under nitrogen deposition based on microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) responses.
• Analyzing the decoupling of microbial carbon and nitrogen cycling based on CUE and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) measurements.
• Identifying key environmental drivers of microbial metabolism based on factors like ecosystem type, soil pH, and climate.
• Assessing the impact of experimental nitrogen addition rate and duration on microbial nutrient fluxes.

Strengths

• Data is compiled from isotope-based measurements, suggesting a foundation in empirical research.
• The description explicitly lists multiple analyzed factors, including ecosystem type, nitrogen addition rate, and soil properties.
• Dataset is openly shared under a CC-BY-4.0 license, permitting broad reuse.

Limitations

• The dataset is small (72.9 KB), indicating limited scope or a highly summarized compilation.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Compiled isotope-based measurements from published studies.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-13 02:58:06; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global terrestrial ecosystems